Once upon a time…

Why do you need references?


  • Allows you to acknowledge the contribution of other researchers in your work
    • credit to other scientists from whom you have borrowed ideas


  • BUT ITS NOT JUST ABOUT PLAGIARISM…
  1. Provides evidence to support the claims in your work
  2. Makes your writing more persuasive
  3. Demonstrates the depth of your own research into a topic
  4. Allows verification of your work
  5. Indicative of the extent of information on a topic


  • Currency for academics and journals

What information needs a reference?


  • In general:
    • When you provide information that you ordinarily would not have known before conducting your research
    • When you provide information that you cannot assume the reader knows


  • Anytime you:
    • discuss, summarize, or paraphrase the ideas of an author
    • use data or statistics
    • use images, videos, or other media
    • provide a direct quotation (which we are NOT doing in this class)


  • To support one of your own assertions

There are a bazillion different reference styles…













Different publications have different ways of formatting references in the Reference section at the end of a paper:
Nature Reviews: Jones, P. A. & Laird, P. W. Cancer epigenetics comes of age. Nature Genet. 21, 163–167 (1999).

Nature Genetics: Jones, P. & Laird, P. Cancer epigenetics comes of age. Nat. Genet. 21, 163-167 (1999).

Cell: Jones, P. & Laird, P. (1999). Cancer epigenetics comes of age. Nat. Genet. 21, 163–167.

Cancer Research: Jones P. A., Laird P. W. Cancer epigenetics comes of age. Nat. Genet., 21: 163-167, 1999.

There are a bazillion different reference styles…













Different publications have different ways of formatting in-line references in the text:
(Jones and Laird, 2011)

(Jones & Laird, 2011)

“yadda yadda yadda [1]”

(Jones et al., 2012)

“Jones et al. 2000 …”

In Capstone we will use APA formatting

Reference software to the rescue!
















Mendeley is (FREE) software that collects and organizes your references

It also interfaces with Word and automagically formats your in-line references and reference list with the click of a button

Download at: https://www.mendeley.com/download-desktop/

Using Mendeley desktop (required for Capstone)

Mendeley consists of two parts:

  1. the reference manager program
  2. a citation tool in Word

Basic things to do in Mendeley

Basic things to do in Mendeley: REFERENCE MANAGER




  • Add articles to your database using “Add Files” OR drag & drop PDFs into Mendeley


  • Organize articles by folders (topics, projects, classes)
    • set citation styles
    • format individual references


  • Take notes, highlight, annotate your own PDF (viewable within Mendeley)

Using Mendeley in Microsoft Word (citation plugin)

In the “References” tab of Word, you will now see the “Mendeley Cite-O-Matic” menu


This is how you insert in-line citations into text and insert a bibliography (reference list) at the end of your paper


You can choose different formats and with the click of a button, Mendeley will reformat all references

Mendeley also has an online ‘Web Library’







  • You can sync your desktop library to Mendeley Reference Manager
    • moves papers to the cloud for storage
    • making papers available on other computers
    • Allows additional features (social/community)

Let’s get downloading and trouble shooting

Todays Goal: Familiarize yourslef with Mendeley


1. Download software (desktop and word)
2. Create an account
3. Download web extension (if possible)


4. Create a folder for your capstone in Mendeley
5. Download or collect citations from some papers


6. Practice citing in Word
7. Create a bibliography in Word


8. Correct a citation (e.g. title in all caps)

Pro Tip: Become ONE with Mendeley


  • Start collecting references in Mendeley (even if you don’t have the full text yet)
    • The web importer is handy for this


  • Papers can be difficult to track down again if you try to go back and find them
    • it is better to take the time to get them right away


  • It will make your life soooo much easier


  • You will not lose points
    • handwritten bibliographies are NEVER perfect

Mendeley resources and guides